


Garrulous

by lcdsra



Series: LCDSRA's A-Z Soulmate Prompts [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27499954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lcdsra/pseuds/lcdsra
Summary: /ˈɡer(y)ələs/adjective1. excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters.Or: Family squabbles.
Relationships: None
Series: LCDSRA's A-Z Soulmate Prompts [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935553





	Garrulous

**Author's Note:**

> AU: You have a mark on you body where you and your soulmate will touch each other first.
> 
> Character(s): Maria  
> Relationship(s): Maria/Nikita mention  
> Warning(s): None

Did Maria want to meet her family for Thanksgiving? No. She didn’t even celebrate it with Nikita, or with anyone in STARS. Hell, she wasn’t even in the United States for a lot of the year.

Yet here she was, accepting the first invitation from her family to join them since. Well, since she was found by Rune and joined STARS.

The house she lived in for the first few years of her life looked about the same. A few plants were different, but still. She knocked on the door hesitantly.

“Hello Maria!”

She braced herself for a hug and put on a fake, well-practiced smile. “Hi, Mom.”

Her Mom was an overwhelmingly nice person, sometimes. She expressed kindness in an exaggerated, almost condescending way. Her Mom enveloped her into a bone crushing hug and Maria wheezed. “Oh my dear, Ria, we’ve missed you!”

“I’ve missed you too.” She forced out, patting her Mom on the back. “I can’t breathe-“

“Oh stop being so dramatic.” Her Mom smiled widely, but let her go. “You’ve grown so much!”

“You-“ Maria shook her head. “Never mind. I guess I have.”

Her Mom ushered her inside the house, where everyone else was mostly sat down. They all looked up at her arrival, but only her Dad acknowledged her with a wave and a smile.

Maria waved back nervously, and fidgeted in place. Even though it had been years since she ran away, her little brother and sister were both hesitant around her. She was once close, but of course, now they doubted her.

Her Mom welcomed her back into the family immediately after she came back. Sofia tried more than Miles to get closer, but both often walled themselves off from her.

“So, Sofia’s in high school now.” Her Mom started, completely unaware, or more likely, completely ignoring the tension in the room. “She’s taking ceramics this year.”

“Oh? What made you want to do that?” She asked, as casually as she could. Sofia wasn’t the type who loved ceramics, she was more the drawing type.

Sofia glanced at Miles before replying with a shrug, “It was the only art class available. And I have to take it.”

“You’re lucky, art’s difficult to get into.” Miles interjected. 

“Because everyone has to take a course of it.”

The younger sibling’s stared at each other like they were about to argue, but both their eyes flickered towards her, then back to each other. No, they were not annoyed or angry at each other, but at her.

“Anyway, yes, I’m so excited to see what Sofia makes, because I know you used to do ceramics a lot.”

She did, right before she ran away. She was in her senior year and so unhappy and stifled by the perfect image that she wasn’t.

So, perhaps her actions were short-sighted at the time, but when she found STARS, it led her down the best path she could have envisioned for herself. She got an education that mattered, she had a steady job and, in fact, found her soulmate.

The handprint on her back wasn’t there. And she knew exactly who touched her there for the first time. Nikita.

That was why she was back home, partially. Her parents would want to know, at some point, that their oldest kid who appeared to be the one least on track was the first of anyone to have met there soulmates.

Because her parents weren’t soulmates, though they hid their respective marks well. Her Mom’s mark was on the tips of three of her right finger. Her Dad’s mark was also on his hand, on his palm.

“Oh, enough about us.” Her Mom said, laughing at something someone might’ve said or done. “Maria, tell us what you’ve been doing?”

Now. Now would be the time. Say it now.

“I have a job now.” She said, instead of what she had came to say. “I work in biological research.”

Her Mom looked surprised. “Doesn’t that require school?”

Maria forced another smile. “Of course it does.” Did her parents not assume she did anything after leaving them? Then again, they probably didn’t know that STARS had a base near their town, nor that she had accidentally stumbled upon it.

“So you completed your education?” Her Dad asked, picking up when her Mom was lost for words.

“Yes. I wouldn’t have gotten a job otherwise.”

“Hey, don’t sass your Dad.” Her Mom snapped. “Why didn’t you tell us you got a degree?”

She snapped her teeth together in mild irritation. “It’s more complicated than that. You wouldn’t have believed me anyway.”

“We always would’ve supported you.”

“You haven’t for a long time.” Maria was aware that Sofia and Miles were staring silently. Her parents were speechless, and a dark little part of her purred in satisfaction. “Have you wondered why I ran away? Maybe because I couldn’t live up to the golden child you wanted?”

She stared down at her plate. Her food was untouched, uneaten. She had spaced out for the entirety of the meal. “Thanks for inviting me, but this was a mistake.”

“Wait.” Miles said, right as she gathered her things and stood up. “You met your soulmate?”

Everyone turned their heads to him. He cowered a little, but pointed to her. “I, I didn’t see a soul mark.”

“You met him?” Sofia asked.

Maria stared at them all in shock. Had she not- “I met her. And she is beautiful. That’s why I originally came here but I guess,” She sighed and shifted. “I’m sorry it has to end like this.”

“It doesn’t have to, Maria.” Her Dad said quietly. “Please, stay?”

Her Mom refused to look at her, but her siblings finally were so she conceded and dropped her things. “Okay. I’m sorry for reacting like that.”

“It’s okay.” Her Dad replied. “Tell us about your soulmate?”

Maria’s lips quirked. “Her name is Nikita. She’s nice.” Perhaps nice wasn’t the right word for it, but she had yet to gage her family’s reaction to the ‘she’ part of her soulmate.

Nikita was determined and a hard worker and she cared so deeply she had to hide it behind a mask of indifference. Maria’s parents might actually like her, excluding a few details.

It was easy, then, to ignore the fact that her Mom left in a huff, to pretend nothing had changed. Sofia talked a little bit more about school, Miles about friends, and her Dad about work.

Almost like Maria took the place of her Mom when she was gone, and that revelation was startling. And disturbing. Almost as if she were replacing her. Maybe that was why her Mom greeted her, controlled how she participated in the conversation before she left. All disguised behind a smile.

Maria was tempted to find her Mom and talk to her, but ultimately she knew whatever she said wouldn’t help. Her Mom was stubborn, relentless.

She’d hate Nikita for being the exact same way.

**Author's Note:**

> So cut the headlights  
> Summer's a knife  
> I'm always waiting for you  
> Just to cut to the bone  
> Devils roll the dice  
> Angels roll their eyes  
> And if I bleed  
> You'll be the last to know
> 
> \- Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift


End file.
